Bernardo "Betito" Márquez García is the Mayor of Toa Baja affiliated with the New Progressive Party (PNP). He was a member of the

Puerto Rico House of Representatives The House of Representatives of Puerto Rico ( es, Cámara de Representantes de Puerto Rico) is the lower house of the Legislative Assembly of Puerto Rico, the bicameral territorial legislature of Puerto Rico. The House, together with the Sen ...

from 2005 to 2013 representing

District 10 District 10 may refer to: Places * District 10 (Ho Chi Minh city), Vietnam * District 10 (Zürich), in Switzerland * District 10, an electoral district of Malta * District 10, a police district of Malta * District 10 School, a historic school in ...

Early years and studies

Bernardo Márquez was born on the Barrio Pájaros Candelaria of

Toa Baja Toa Baja (, ) is a town and municipality of Puerto Rico located in the northern coast, north of Toa Alta and Bayamón; east of Dorado; and west of Cataño. Toa Baja is spread over five barrios, including Toa Baja Pueblo (the downtown area and ...

. During his school years, he was an avid sports athlete, distinguishing himself in

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding t ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, and

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Sum ...

. Márquez completed his

Bachelor A bachelor is a man who is not and has never been married.Bachelors are, in Pitt & al.'s phrasing, "men who live independently, outside of their parents' home and other institutional settings, who are neither married nor cohabitating". (). Etymo ...

and

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Business Administration at the

University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico ( es, Universidad de Puerto Rico, UPR) is the main public university system in the U.S. Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. It is a government-owned corporation with 11 campuses and approximately 58,000 students and 5,3 ...

Professional life

Márquez worked as a college professor at the University of Puerto Rico and the

Interamerican University of Puerto Rico The Inter American University of Puerto Rico (Spanish: ''Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico''; often abbreviated to ''UIPR'' or ''Inter'') is a private Christian university with its main campus in San Germán, Puerto Rico. It also has c ...

. He also worked as owner of the Selectos Supermarket, on the Barrio Candelaria Arenas.

Political career

Márquez was first elected to the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico at the 2004 general election, where he was elected to represent District 10. He was reelected in

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

. Márquez chose not to run for reelection at the 2012 general election. In 2015, Márquez announced his intention to run for Mayor of

challenging longtime incumbent

Aníbal Vega Borges Aníbal Vega Borges is a Puerto Rican politician and was mayor of Toa Baja until June 30, 2016. He also served as a member of the Puerto Rico House of Representatives from 1993 to 2005. Early life and education He completed his secondary educ ...

. On June 5, 2016, Márquez defeated Vega Borges in what was classified by some newspapers as the "surprise of the primaries".

Personal life

Márquez is married and has three children. In 2020, one of his sons, José Bernando Márquez, was elected to the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico for the

Citizens' Victory Movement Movimiento Victoria Ciudadana ( en, Citizens' Victory Movement, generally abbreviated as MVC) is a Puerto Rican political party founded in 2019. It ran in the 2020 general elections on an anti-colonial platform, proposing a constitutional asse ...

party.

References

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External links

Bernardo Márquez Official biography
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marquez Garcia, Bernardo Living people New Progressive Party members of the House of Representatives of Puerto Rico People from Toa Baja, Puerto Rico Year of birth missing (living people) University of Puerto Rico alumni University of Puerto Rico faculty